Due to technical issues, only the first 18 mins of this class were recorded. Ken provided a summary, appended at the end of the transcript.

Mind training: suitable under any circumstances

The Alembic. 23 Jul, 2024

Ken: Why are you focused on a Great Path of Awakening or lojong at this point?

Student: At this point, because when the slogans do come into my mind—

Ken: Oh, please don’t use that term. That’s Trungpa. Slogan is political, and these are not slogans. They’re instructions. I’m sorry. It’s just something that really bothers me.

Student: It bothers me, too. And that’s the general vernacular I’ve heard for it.

Ken: Well, no, that was introduced. Nobody else used that, certainly not in my training anyway.

Student: But when the instructions do come into my mind, I find them very valuable, especially ones about ego cherishing and driving all blames into one. And then, of course, the tonglen practice.

Ken: The tonglen practice itself. Yeah. Okay. One of the aspects of the Tibetan tradition that is often not appreciated even by the Tibetans themselves, is that the Tibetan tradition contains several, actually quite a large number of complete practices. And there’s a saying in Tibet, “In Tibet, we practiced 100 deities and saw none. In India, they practiced one deity and saw hundreds.” And this is something that’s very helpful to keep in mind. That when you’re beginning practice, it’s very good to learn a lot of different practices. During the three year retreat … I never counted, but it’s probably somewhere in between 150 and 200 different forms of practice. That’s a lot. So we asked, “We’ve learned all these things. Which one should we do?”

I remember him saying, “Well, probably there are five that appeal to you. And you look at those five and think, well, maybe not that one. And then you look at the other four and you say, well, maybe not that one.”

Anyway, you get the point. So that’s one thing to keep in mind. I know two very, very, present day, distinguished teachers, I’m pretty sure their main practice has been taking and sending, Mahayana mind training.

It’s very deep and very powerful. And it has a special place for me because I was ill for much of the time I was in retreat, and taking and sending—and Mahayana mind training in general as you read about in the commentaries—is a practice you can do under any circumstances. So when you’re completely ill and destitute etc., “I’m going take all the suffering into me and give all my well-being,” even though you only at this point have a smidgen of well-being, at least you’re still alive. And give that. And the same thing, when you’re at the pinnacle of success and everything’s wonderful and you say, “Well, I’m going to take all the suffering and give all my success to everybody.” So that’s one of the things that I find quite wonderful about the practice is that it’s easy to do in any circumstance.

The union of emptiness and compassion

Ken: It’s interesting because I’m going to start off this evening with exactly what Mahayana mind practice is about, which is the union of emptiness and compassion. So this is a long winded way of my saying, “Think about what place you want it to have in your practice repertoire.” And this is a determination you will have to make. But at some point if you’re really serious about this, you’re going to take one practice and go really, really deep with it. And what that practice is, probably doesn’t make much difference, as long as it is a practice that speaks to you.

In terms of really learning it, a lot of people have found benefit from looking at several different translations and seeing their strengths and weaknesses. That translation I made after the three year retreats, I revised the instructions once, but I’ve never revised the commentary, for various reasons. So I’m pretty confident about the translations of the actual instructions, and there are a couple in there that are very difficult because they’re in colloquial Tibetan. But Sarah Stearns, who’s a translator—lives off the coast of Washington—gave me the right translation for one of them, that I would never have got to. That is, “Don’t rely on a sense of duty.” That’s a really good translation for that. And then through that you’re going to get a more rounded picture. And the same with the commentaries. And you’ll be able to tell when the translation is off when you look at it.

If you can find someone who’s well versed in the practice, that’s a really useful resource to have. Now, my teacher was very clear that taking and sending, and mind training in particular, is not a way that you develop loving kindness and compassion. It is a way that you build it once you have developed it. And I took those words to heart in the three year retreat. Rinpoche gave us two months of time, which in the whole, given the number of practices we did, that was a really large chunk of time. And I used the first one of those to practice loving-kindness and compassion as they’re set out in the Jewel Ornament of Liberation. But you could take what I have in Wake Up to Your Life, for instance, in which I’ve taken those meditations … they’re hard meditations. It’s a power approach to developing loving-kindness and compassion. The usual approach that’s used in the Theravadan tradition, that’s an ecstatic approach, but the approach that I put in Wake Up to Your Life is a power approach, so, it goes straight in. I didn’t appreciate that distinction until some time later, but it puts you right up against it. And on that basis then, when you really have developed loving-kindness and compassion, then taking and sending takes on a different quality. It will also take on a different quality when you have some experience of emptiness, It really opens up and goes much, much deeper.

The one thing to remember, and it’s very, very important, is you do not keep any part of you—and this is included in the instructions—it has to cover all areas of your life. I’ll give you two examples of that. There is a person who has a long practice history who was part of a small group that I was doing taking and sending with back in the late 80’s. And, he’s an extraordinarily intelligent person. He’s got a PhD in philosophy. That’s right. And he’s also a psychiatrist so he’s got an MD, etc., etc. And I said, “So you are giving away your intelligence, aren’t you?” And he went, “What?” It had never occurred to him. This is really important when you come to this practice. There’s another occasion where I was teaching at Against the Stream in Los Angeles, and a woman asked about this, and she said, “I just can’t really connect with this practice,” but obviously she wanted to do something with it. So I said, “What’s something that brings joy in your life? And she said, “I sing in a choir.” I said, “What do you enjoy about singing in a choir?” She says, “You’re just in this field of sound. It’s just wonderful.” And you can just see her lighting up. So I said, “Are you giving that away?” And her face just crumpled and she sat down.

So most of us are biased one way or another. Either we find it very easy to take in the suffering of others, and we find it a little more difficult to give away joy and well-being. Or we find it difficult to take in the suffering of others, and we find it easy to give others our joy and well-being. It’s very, very important to be balanced in the practice. So with each breath you’re taking in one and giving the other, and they have to be more or less in balance. And you do this for a while and there won’t be much of you left.

The traditional warnings

Kati: Okay. Welcome back to class, everybody. Does anyone, first of all, does anyone need. Does anyone need a copy of the verses? Raise your hand. Okay. Just one here. You can copy off the top. Thank you. Okay. So a few points of logistics before we get started. Welcome back to the Alembic, for most of you. If any of you have been joining the class online and you’re here for the first time tonight in person, welcome. there will be no breaks. So if you have a need to take care of, bathrooms are at the end of the hall on the right. You can have water and tea in here. Please be mindful of where you’re walking so you don’t kick over anyone else’s tea. And what else should I tell them?

Ken: I think you should give them the traditional …

Kati: Please be aware of all the traditional warnings. We’re pan-traditional. We have all of them.

Kati: Death, paralysis and insanity may result from this particular evening. Be aware.

Ken: This course.

Kati: This course. But also tonight. Right now.

Ken: Oh absolutely.

Kati: So if you’d like to run screaming from the room, now is your chance. You can leave to go to the bathroom at any time. But if you’re going to leave the class, you have to leave right now.

Ken: People have actually run out of the room screaming with me.

Kati: So welcome back.

Ken: Not very often, but it has happened.

Kati: I knew I had a logistics thing. Let’s try tonight to pass the mic socialist style. So, I will bring the mic to the first person who raises their hand, and then that person now has the mic until someone else raises their hand and you bring it to them. So we’ll do it sangat style.

Ken: Oh this is very good. Because it means they’re going to have to keep attention in the whole room.

Kati: Exactly. And it keeps everyone on their toes instead of just the mic person, like levitating on their toes.

Opening prayers

Ken: Let’s begin with the prayers.

May my heart turn to practice.
May practice become a path.
May this path dissolve confusion.
May confusion become wisdom.

Knowing there is nothing outside or inside to free me,
I seek sanctuary in buddha.
Knowing that experience and awareness are not two,
I seek sanctuary in dharma.
Knowing there is nothing to grasp or oppose,
I seek sanctuary in sangha.

Knowing there is nothing outside or inside to free me,
I seek sanctuary in buddha.
Knowing that experience and awareness are not two,
I seek sanctuary in dharma.
Knowing there is nothing to grasp or oppose.
I seek sanctuary in sangha.

Knowing there is nothing outside or inside to free me,
I seek sanctuary in buddha.
Knowing that experience and awareness are not two,
I seek sanctuary in dharma.
Knowing there is nothing to grasp or oppose,
I seek sanctuary in sangha.

Beings are numberless: may I free them all.
Reactions are endless: may I release them all.
Doors to experience our infinite: may I enter them all.
Ways of awakening are limitless: may I know them all.

Beings are numberless: may I free them all.
Reactions are endless: may I release them all.
Doors to experience our infinite: may I enter them all.
Ways of awakening are limitless: may I know them all.

Beings are numberless: may I free them all.
Reactions are endless: may I release them all.
Doors to experience are infinite: may I enter them all.
Ways of awakening are limitless: may I know them all.

Contemporary Session Prayers

A Sufi story

Ken: So, I think we’ll visit with our friend Mullah Nasrudin. I think this will be the fourth story we have.

One day the villagers asked Nasrudin to give the sermon at the local mosque. At the appropriate time, he ascended to the pulpit or wherever the sermons are given from. He looked over everybody who was gathered there and said, “How many of you know what I’m going to talk about today?”

And everybody said, “We don’t know.”

Nasrudin said, “Well, obviously you’re too ignorant, and there’s no point in my wasting my time here,” and walked away.

So the elders came to him and prevailed upon him to give the sermon the following week. And he ascended to the appropriate place, and he looked over [the group] and said, “How many of you know what I’m going to talk about today?” This time they were ready. “All of us do.” “Well, then,there’s no point in me talking about it.”

Well, for some reason, they prevailed on him a third time to give the sermon. And so this time Nasrudin said, “How many of you know what I’m going to talk about today?” And this time they were really ready. “Half of us do and half of us don’t.” “Excellent,” said Nasrudin, “Those who do can tell those who don’t,” and he walked off.

Ken: So my question is, “How many of you know what I’m going to talk about this evening?” That’s your first pointing out instruction.

Now I want to pick up a loose end from last week, because it really is quite important. This is in chapter three, which is about the bodhisattva vow.

The homework given at the end of this class was: take any object and look at it, and let each concept that arises about it subside. Sit somewhere where there is total silence. Create or wait for a sound. Practice listening to the silence even when there is sound.

Ken’s summary

Chapter 3. The bodhisattva vow has two components that appear to cancel each other out, namely, the intention to free all beings, and the intention that not a single being is freed. The former is the expression of compassion. The latter is the expression of emptiness. These two do not cancel each other out. Rather, they describe how a bodhisattva operates. He or she frees sentient beings and does so without every giving rising to the concept or idea of a sentient being.

Chapter 4: Generosity without reference. To give without holding any idea of giving, gift, or recipient is of a totally different order than ordinary giving. Here we see the author using the amount of goodness (merit) that is immeasurable to convey that this kind of giving is of a different order.

Chapter 5. The characteristics of the Buddha’s body. Buddha is not just a physical person. There is another quality that cannot be perceived through concept. This aspect of a buddha gave rise, eventually, to the three bodies or kayas of buddha.

There were rich conversations with many of the people present in which they touched, if only for a moment, each of these understandings.